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The Shadow From Beyond Time
.]] The Shadow From Beyond Time is an unknown paranormal entity in the pulp action comic series, Atomic Robo. It is a non-linear "exoversal" entity unaffected by the laws of the universe. It can take any shape or form, intersect through various points in time, and can phase through planes of existence without effort. It first landed on Earth in what was known as the Tunguska incident in 1908, and had wreaked havoc at least four times after that, each coincidentally involving Robo. It's primary motive is unknown, but it wishes to devour the world (as if you didn't know that already). Appearance and Abilities As it is a non-linear entity, the Shadow From Beyond Time isn't bound by any law or restriction that applies to all things in the universe. Along with the abilities stated above, the entity can infuse itself through multiple objects and take control of them. It can also spread its influence by mutating lifeforms and mind-controlling them, but the shown effects are temporary. It apparently has a weakness to lightning, and takes significant damage from a single blast of a Lightning Gun. It's prominent features are it's multiple yellow eyes, which, when gazed into, can cause the entity to gain its influence over any lifeform. It sports a translucent purple ectoplasmic skin, and can grow teeth on its entire body. It can choose to walk, but it can fly and move to any point in an instant on a whim. Though a very dangerous entity, it's not the most intelligent, but can quickly learn and develop new strategies in each of its appearances. Besides all those things, the entity seemed to recognize Robo prior to their encounter. In all of its appearances, Robo was involved, and the monster constantly called his name. Story Tunguska An unknown group of five people: Key-Ying, Oakley, Houdini, Charles Fort, Scott Lovecraft, and Nikola Tesla himself, were cohorts since presumably the late 19th century. They had disbanded before the turn of the century, but when the entity appeared over Tunguska in 1908, Tesla, with Fort and Howard Philips Lovecraft's help, used the Wardenclyffe Tower as a space-warping ray to eliminate the threat. The incident, however, left the tower in ruins, and also left the young Lovecraft a constantly paranoid and terrified man. This, coupled by his father's mysterious death some time ago, caused him lose his sanity finishing the work that his father had started, which eventually inspired him to write the Cthulhu Mythos as a warning to the world regarding the dangerous entity. It was then that the three vowed never to speak of this event again, and never to see each other once more. Fort burned ten years of research on the entity, and Lovecraft went on separate ways from the three. Introduction to Robo On the night of April 3, 1926, Fort and Lovecraft went to Tesla's Houston Street laboratory hoping to see the man himself. Much to their dismay, they saw the Atomic Robot himself. Fort explained to Robo of their situation prior to their coming. However, Fort reveals a shocking truth: the entity had gone inside the young Lovecraft during the event at Wardenclyffe, and he expected it to come out anytime. The reason he brought him here was so they could kill the author, hoping to stop the monster's return. With Tesla out for a speaking tour, their efforts had come far too late. The entity morphed within Lovecraft, revealing the grotesque tentacled monster. It escaped into the night, causing Robo and Fort to chase after it in the streets of Manhattan. The monster was elusive, and was too fast for both of them to corner. In the end, as the monster continued to evolve, Robo overloaded the Lightning Guns he acquired prior to their pursuit, and rammed their car into the monster's maw, causing a large explosion. Sputnik's Booster? In December 1957, Tesladyne was not doing as well as Robo as expected, and tried to find leads on new technology, hoping to find success in their discoveries of these technology and finally move Tesladyne up in the ranks of recognition. Robo got a lead from the Oregon State University's Astronomy department of falling debris set to land on their state in a few hours. Robo presumed this to be the booster of Sputnik I, and getting ahold of it would put them in an advantage to researching about Soviet technology in the midst of the Cold War. With the department cooperating with their little operation, they called for a military blockade and temporary evacuation of nearby citizens, while Robo and his Action Scientists sneak in with the debris and high-tail it out of the state. However, upon arriving to the crash site, the debris that had fallen wasn't the booster at all, but the exoversal entity appearing on Earth once again. This time, it had spread its influence over the town, turning everyone into mutated zombies with fragments of humanity in them. One of the scientists had been afflicted by the mutation, forcing Robo and the rest of the surviving scientists to flee. Unfortunately, the entire town had caught up with them, and the monster mutated into a flying tentacled squid, preparing to devour them all. Robo, having an epiphany of the monster's ultimate motives, ripped open its flesh, and entered within. Researching the Entity Skipping forward to 1971, Robo attempts to contact Carl Sagan in Cornell University in order to explain to him about the Shadow From Beyond Time. Skeptical at first, Sagan reluctantly takes the offer, and the two meet at Urubamba Valley in Peru, where state-of-the-art, specialized equipment was situated in Machu Picchu. With some prior research based on Charles Fort's notes, Robo was able to predict its next arrival to Earth. Using Robo's untested theories, they were able to trap the entity in a dimensional matrix, preventing it from exiting the field into real space-time. Though the monster was securely trapped within, as Robo was standing guard over the field, a beetle had crawled onto the equipment. The monster saw through Robo's fear of bugs, and used it to its advantage by mutating the beetle and turning into an insect swarm to attack Robo. Carl Sagan formulated a plan to have Robo lure the swarm so he could zap it with a modified Lightning Gun. As the swarm turned into a large maw, Robo crawled inside, when a hand pulled him in. Inside the monster were the Robos from the past two issues and another Robo. Final Encounter? In the present era of February 2010, Robo recently finished a call from Barack Obama when two employees from the Exotic Physics department, Martin and Louis, appear to present him their proposed invention. The said invention was a Quantum Decomputer, which spanned an entire two-story room and was connected to steam pipes. Upon further explanation, the two Action Scientists had created it in order to solve the "single greatest conflict of modern physics". Robo didn't like what they created, stating that it was "evil" and that a calculating computer shouldn't be any bigger than a box on a desk. Regardless, he reluctantly agreed for them to demonstrate what the decomputer could do. Consequently, the calculations it created summoned the entity from the "exoverse" once more and wreaked havoc in the entire Tesladyne complex, taking control of machines and possessing Louis. Having encountered the being three times throughout his life, Robo calmly deals with the situation and rips open through the monster's exterior, appearing in a white place of existence with the other three Robos from the past issues. Using the burned-out Lightning Guns that came with the 1926 Robo's car, three of the Robos worked together to devise a working dimensional bomb in order to destroy the entity throughout multiple points in space-time. Upon the device's detonation, the four Robos returned to their respective time periods while the Shadow From Beyond Time exploded, ceasing to exist aside from its remains. It is unknown when the being will strike again, or whether it was eliminated for good. Gallery File:Lovecraftmorphintime.JPG|Entity from Lovecraft concept art, by Scott Wegener. File:Shadowconcept2.jpg File:Shadowphase1-3.JPG|The entity fully developed as seen in Issue 2. Category:Atomic Robo Characters